Facebook’s Zuckerberg Takes Philanthropy Into Profit, Politics
By REUTERS

SAN FRANCISCO — Mark Zuckerberg, who famously urged his company Facebook Inc to “move fast and break things,” is taking a similar approach to the staid world of philanthropy, indicating his new venture will get directly involved with politics and may even turn a profit.

The project, called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, is structured as a limited liability company. That means, unlike a traditional charitable or philanthropic foundation, it can make political donations, lobby lawmakers, invest in businesses and recoup any profits from those investments.

“They are not behaving like a traditional philanthropy,” said Leslie Lenkowsky, professor of public affairs and philanthropy at Indiana University. “They are instead trying to achieve philanthropic purposes using a business model.”

Philanthropic foundations such as the one set up by Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates typically support non-profit organizations, and they are required to pay out at least 5 percent of their assets in grants each year, a restriction the Zuckerbergs will not face.

Non-profit foundations like Gates’s do not pay tax, whereas the Facebook chief executive’s vehicle would pay tax on any profit generated.

Chan and Zuckerberg announced Tuesday, in a Facebook post disclosing the birth of their daughter Maxima, that 99 percent of the stock they hold in Facebook would go toward the philanthropic project over their lifetime.

At the stock’s current price that stake is worth $45 billion.

Zuckerberg said he will invest up to $1 billion of his shares each year over the next three years into the initiative.

But the limited liability company structure means the couple do not have to sell those shares under the same time restraints they would face if the initiative was structured as a foundation, giving them more flexibility in how long they can hang on to the stock.

Thirty-one year old Zuckerberg, who holds majority voting power in the company, said he would maintain a controlling interest for the “foreseeable future.”

The stock sales, if any, over the next three years are not expected to affect Facebook’s share price because they are well-telegraphed and just a small fraction of both the company’s $300 billion market cap and daily trading volume.

“This sounds like one of those NFL contracts where you hear it’s a $100 million deal over 10 years but in reality only the first three years are guaranteed,” said Vince Rivers, a senior fund manager at Boston-based JOHCM Funds.

The couple has yet to outline specific organizations or causes they will fund but said the initial areas of focus will be curing disease, innovating education and expanding Internet connectivity.

Zuckerberg’s Facebook posts and previous donations provide an indication of where the couple might focus their efforts.

He and Chan made their first high-profile donation in 2010 with $100 million to improve Newark public schools.

The money funded a plan aimed at transforming Newark’s underperforming schools. But it ended up moving thousands of students to new schools while laying off teachers and support staff, and critics said the effort failed to involve the community.

Zuckerberg has acknowledged problems with that effort, and in announcing the new initiative, the couple emphasized the need to work with schools, parent groups and local governments.

“They acknowledged that it takes time to become good at something as difficult as effective philanthropy,” said Phil Buchanan, president of the Center for Effective Philanthropy.

The couple’s recent donations include $20 million to EducationSuperHighway, which helps connect classrooms to the Internet, and a new acute care and trauma center at San Francisco General Hospital, where 30-year old Chan works as a pediatrician.

They have also said they are passionate about personalized learning, or using technology to help kids aged from five to 18 to learn at different speeds.

Zuckerberg has also been a supporter of immigration reform, including efforts to ease the pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. That stance drew criticism from conservatives, but it is not clear if immigration will be a focus of his new effort.

In addition to the unusual structure of their initiative, Zuckerberg and Chan are distinguished by their youth, a rarity in high-end philanthropy, which they think will give them advantages in what they called the “very long time horizons” of their project.

“By starting at a young age, we hope to see compounding benefits throughout our lives,” Zuckerberg and Chan wrote in a letter announcing the initiative.

投資？遊說？ 臉書祖克柏捐錢用途蒙層紗

臉書創辦人祖克柏和妻子普莉西拉．陳現在是矽谷最有影響力的夫婦，這是因為過去這一年裡祖克柏「長大了」 ，如今還成了人父，為了讓女兒能生活在更美好的世界，他宣布「陳祖克柏倡議」（Chan Zuckerberg Initiative）這個慈善公司的計畫。

過去一年，祖克柏不再是穿著帽Ｔ、傻乎乎，在媒體前顯得靦腆的創辦人，而是穿著西裝歡迎國家領袖或接受國家領袖歡迎的創辦人。他還會在一室之中以中文和大陸學生交談，更以中文和大陸國家主席習近平談話。

此外，祖克柏還是提倡家庭、事業兼顧的男性，為了女兒，宣布請兩個月育嬰假，成為美國科技業重視家庭生活最新趨勢的新成員。

「陳祖克柏倡議」將以祖克柏百分之九十九的臉書股票為金源。祖克柏雖將「陳祖克柏倡議」的目標訂為提升「平等、教育與人類潛力」，如何做有待觀察。

祖克柏之前的慈善捐助並非沒有瑕疵，許多人質疑他捐款給學校是為節稅。例如，上一個會計年度他在英國僅付了約六千六百美元公司稅。

「陳祖克柏倡議」在公司說明中表示，所有金錢將用於「資助非營利組織、從事私人投資、參與政策辯論，目標為在具有極大需求的領域產生正面影響」。參與政策辯論實則即是「從事遊說工作」，而外界可能永遠無法得知「私人投資」內容。

祖克柏的internet.org計畫也惹人爭議。計畫旨在提供十億人網路連結，但開發中世界一些小公司說，路人皆知，計畫是臉書快速擴增用戶的途徑。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/12/02/technology/02reuters-facebook-philanthropy.html

2015-12-03．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯王麗娟